One Hundred Years of Solitude

workshop with the steaming
cup, and he lighted the lamp
in order to count the little
gold fishes, which he kept in
a tin pail. There were
seventeen of them. Since he
had decided not to sell any,
he kept on making two fishes
a day and when he finished
twenty-five he would melt
them down and start all over
again. He worked all
morning, absorbed, without
thinking about anything,